St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-04-24
BLAINES
DUPLICITY.
A Pennsylvania Millionaire Republican
Frees His Mind on the plumed
Knights Conduct.
In Order to Conoiliate His Enemies He
Abandoned His Old and Tried
Friends,
Aud, as a Consequence, Was Laid
Out Cold in the Last
Contest.
Cleveland Denies Having Made ANY
Statement Regarding the Next
Campaign.
Special 10 the Globe.

special 10 the GlOOe.
CHICAGO, April 23.-Hon. William P.
Flanders, the millionaire from Pennsylva-
MIA, has pariors at the Grand Pacific next
to those of James G. Blaine Flanders
supported Blaine heretofore, and when
asked this morning by GLOBE reporter
whether or not he would support Blaine III
1888, he said:
mo, emphaticay no. will give you my
reasons if they will interest you. l believed
in 1876 that Mr.. Blaine WAS the strongest mar
in the RepV blic0n party. believed he could
have been elected, and L believe lt STILL L
worked for him for months previous to the
convention, threw my influence for him when
ever it would do any good, and visited Gin
cinnati, though not as delegate, Tor the sole
purpose of helping his candidacy. am
positive that were it not for trickery then
MIR. Blaine would have been nominated.
THE CINCINNATI CROWD
which demanded an Ohio candidate at all
hazards, you will remember, tampered with
the gas meters just rs the tide turning
in Blaipe'S favor and compelled an adjourn
ment. Blaine would have swept the country
then. There would never have been cry of
fraud. and no electoral commission would
have been necessary. l ain not willing to say
now that, after all, it would have been best
for the country had Mr.. Blaine been elected.
There were men close to him then, as there
have been ever since, whom the nation
had no confidence in. What he might
have done as president is Of course only TO
be conjectured, but judging from what we
have learned of him since, he might have in
volved the country in foreign complications
that could not but prove disastrous During
the time between the Cincinnati convention
and the Chicago convention of 1880, Mr.
Blaine appeared to devote himself to
the work of breaking Off old friend
ships and forming new alliances. john
A. Logan, OF Illinois. and James f. Wilson,
OF Iowa were among his strongest supporters
at Cincinnati. After his failure to obtain the
nomination he turned his back on all his old
friends and devoted himself during the few
years following to the work Of winning over
to his side the men who had neither spared
tongue nor pen in villifylng him. Joseph
Medi of Chicago; Murat Halstead, of Gin
cinuatl, and Whitelaw Reid, of New York.
were among the most bitter enemies Blaine
had in the United States. Nothing has
been said against him since that could possi-
bly, be considered more abusive than the Vi
tuperatiOn which these gentlemen heaped
upon him. All these stories that
TOLD AGAINST HIM NOW
were originated in the Offices of the New
York Tribune, the Chicago Tribune and the
Cincinnati Commercial then, and all the
charges made against him were stamped with
the approval of Medill, Halstead and
Reid then. They are the men who
brought out the Mulligan letters,
who developed the Little Rock
scandal, and VINO demanded and encouraged
the congressional inquiries which almost re-
suited III Blaine'S ruin. No wonder that men
who had stood by Blaine through all this and
who had proved themselves to be faithful in
the most trying hours of his life, were
abashed and disgusted when they discovered
that he was using every means in his power
TO bring around an alliance with his former
enemies. He could not do this with
old frin
1t was part OF the arrangement that he should
drop Logan, Wilson and the long list of
friends who had stuck to him with such fldel-
ity before Medill, Reid and Halstead woad
give him their hands. He deliberately sacri-
ticed old and tried friendships to his ambition
and proved himself to be wanting in
gratitude and honor. Mr.. Blaine has never
been as strong man as he was in 1876. His
career and his name since then have been de-
cining, and they are still on the wane. Thou
sands of his old friends feel, as do, that the
Republican party has
DONE FAR MORE FOR HIM
than he has ever done for the party; that it
has carried the weight of his candidacy long
enough; that he has been given all the op-
portunities it can afford to give him, and that
he ought not to be q burden on the party any
longer. AS q proof of the fact that he is one OF
the weakest men the Republican party could
nominate, need only to point to the statistics
of the last national election. AS compared
with the vote cast for Garfield, Blaine lost in
every Repu lican state except Pennsylvania
There he held his own because the people of
that state were led to believe that Cleveland
was rank free-rader. They know now that
he is as safe if not safer prouectionist than
Mr. Blaine and should the latter be nomi-
mated, 1t is by no means certain that he would
carry the state at all. We're it not for Logan's
strong Western following. the states of Illinois.
Wisconsin and Michigan would have gone